June 13 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu secured Italian help in his campaign to peel away
European support for recognition of Palestinian statehood at the
United Nations in September.

“I don’t think this in any way would contribute to
bringing peace,” Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said
at a press conference in Rome today after a two-hour meeting
with the Israeli leader at the Villa Madama government compound.

Netanyahu has been making repeated visits to Europe as
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas prepares a formal
statehood proposal to be presented at this year’s annual meeting
of the UN General Assembly in three months. He said statehood
should be the result of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and the
UN effort would only complicate the Middle East peace process.

The two leaders and accompanying Cabinet ministers from
both countries also signed a series of eight agreements aimed at
boosting Italian-Israeli cooperation in tourism, education and
economic development. The press conference took place in a white
tent in which Berlusconi had a wall-size painting of nymphs
surrounding a male harpist by the 18th century Italian artist
Andrea Appiani brought in as a backdrop.

UN Effort

Abbas has said he will seek UN recognition for a new
Palestinian state if peace negotiations with Israel remain
stalemated. The two sides most recently held formal talks last
September. Abbas has said he won’t return to the table unless
Israel freezes Jewish settlement in the West Bank and east
Jerusalem, steps Netanyahu has rejected.

Netanyahu, 61, thanked Berlusconi for supporting his stance
on Palestinian statehood, saying peace “will only come from
negotiations. It cannot be imposed by one side, and not by one-sided UN resolutions.” He called the Italian prime minister “a
great friend of Israel.”

The Israeli prime minister has made similar trips since
April to the U.K., France, Germany and the Czech Republic and
made the same point about the UN during a five-day visit to
Washington last month. He plans to visit Romania and Bulgaria
next month, according to a senior aide.

“We don’t believe a unilateral solution can help peace,”
Berlusconi said. “I believe peace can only be reached with a
common effort, that is, with negotiations.”

Settlements

Netanyahu said the issue of building West Bank settlements
can also be decided only in direct talks and not as a
precondition for negotiations. As he declared in Washington,
Netanyahu said Palestinians must accept Israel’s right to exist
as a Jewish state for peace talks to be successful.

“It would resolve the whole problem,” he said. “The root
of the problem is the refusal to recognize a Jewish state.”

Netanyahu also discussed Iran with Berlusconi, 74,
asserting the Islamic republic will only give up its nuclear
program if it faces a “credible military option.”

Netanyahu yesterday met Mayor Giovanni Alemanno at Rome’s
city hall, where a poster of captured Israeli soldier Gilad
Shalit was hanging outside. Shalit has been held by Palestinian
militants for five years since being captured from a tank
outside the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu said he hoped other European
cities would join efforts to demand Shalit’s release from Hamas,
the Palestinian organization that controls Gaza and is
considered a terrorist group by Israel, the European Union and
the U.S.

Lobbying Support

Israel’s foreign ministry has instructed diplomats abroad
to explain that a unilateral declaration of Palestinian
statehood would undermine all internationally accepted
frameworks for peace and violate existing agreements, according
to a telegram sent to embassies and obtained by Bloomberg.

Netanyahu has also said that he won’t return to
negotiations if Abbas moves ahead on his commitment to form a
new government supported by Hamas, the Islamic group that
controls the Gaza Strip and is considered a terrorist
organization by Israel, the U.S. and European Union.

Abbas, whose Fatah movement rules the West Bank, signed a
reconciliation agreement in Cairo last month, agreeing to
assemble an interim unity government with Hamas and hold new
elections.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe visited Netanyahu and
Abbas earlier this month to propose that they hold a meeting in
Paris aimed at resurrecting peace negotiations and avoid a
showdown at the UN. Abbas was sympathetic to the idea while
Netanyahu agreed to study the plan and consult with the U.S.
before responding, Juppe said.

Netanyahu rejected Obama’s proposal in Washington to use
boundaries from before the 1967 Six-Day War combined with
exchanges of territory as a starting point for peace
negotiations, calling them “indefensible.” The 1967 lines
define the boundaries of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, east
Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which were all captured in the
war that year from Jordan, Egypt and Syria.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Jonathan Ferziger in Rome through the Tel Aviv newsroom at
jferziger@bloomberg.net